Germany has made another significant move in the world of Bitcoin as 1,300 BTC were recently transferred to Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp. This transfer is part of a series of transfers from Germany that could potentially increase selling pressure on Bitcoin.
A blockchain investigator, PeckShieldAlert, revealed the movement of 1,300 Bitcoin from a wallet labeled by the German government. This transfer, valued at around $75.69 million, highlights the active involvement of the German government in the crypto market.
Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that the 1,300 BTC were split across three major crypto exchanges: 400 BTC to Coinbase, 400 BTC to Kraken, and 500 BTC to Bitstamp, totaling $175 million in Bitcoin transfers for the day.
Further investigations by Mempool.space uncovered an additional transfer of 1,700 BTC, valued at $98.76 million, to an external address labeled “139PoPE1bKQam8QJjhVjYDP47f3VH7ybVu.” This brings the total amount of BTC transferred by the German government on July 4 to 3,000 BTC.
These transfers are part of a trend for the German government, with similar transfers occurring on July 2 and June 26. The origins of these transactions date back to a major seizure in 2013, when the German Federal Criminal Police Office confiscated nearly 50,000 Bitcoin from operators of a movie piracy website.
Despite these recent transfers, Germany still holds a Bitcoin reserve of 40,359 BTC, currently valued at $2.30 billion.
The recent German BTC transfers have sparked speculation within the crypto community about a potential selloff. Observers believe that the government may be preparing to liquidate more Bitcoin, potentially impacting the market due to a large selloff.
In addition to the German transfers, the US government recently made moves in the Bitcoin market, transferring BTC to Coinbase Prime. This coincides with the upcoming repayment of BTC to creditors of the defunct Mt. Gox exchange, which lost 850,000 Bitcoin in 2014.
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, suggests that the combination of German and US government transfers, along with negative speculations surrounding the Mt. Gox repayment, has already affected the BTC market price. At the time of writing, the market price for BTC is $57,000, reflecting a 5.39% drop in the past 24 hours.